The baby anjers

The baby anjers are showing. I didn't know this is how they grow. I suppose it will become a big bush this year? I didn't even know that they were winter hard.

Buds in the Hydrengea

The buds in the Hydrengea in the rear of the garden. There are so many Hydrengea's there!! Maybe ten or so. And then another six in the front of the garden. I suppose a few will find a spot in the front garden.

More blooms

More blooms, but what?

Heather in bloom

This is maybe not heather, but a type of Erica at least. It would do better in the 'winter garden' near the house. Shall I move it? In the tray near the house? Enough root space?

It is also gone a bit wild and grows anywhere.

The snowdrops opened up

The snowdrops first showed their beautiful white heads in the deep of the frost.

But today is a beautiful sunny day, and they really open up.

In the background the fungi. In the autumn they were beautiful white, but the frost has turned them brown. I suppose they'll return next autumn.

But the snowdrops are so beautiful!!

Black berries

A new surprise: black berries in the black grass!! I never saw them yet, although I think they must have been there a while.... They don't stick out, but hide a bit under the grass. I think they would be poisonous, by the looks of them.

I would like to look back through some older pictures and my red logbook: see what name they have and see if they flowered some time this year??

Removing Fern

Obviously I should have made the picture before, not after I removed the fern. In the picture you can barely see the hole in the ground. It is right there where the logs indicate the border of the border....

It was quite a huge fern and growing through the wood. I like ferns, but here it was too up front and too large. Plenty of fern in our garden anyway, and it easily multiplies, should we want more!!

Now we have some space to put some nice flowers in, or perhaps extend the lawn....

Attacking the ivy

In this quiet month of Februari - at least where it concerns the garden - we are attacking once again the ivy. A slow process to get rid of it, completely if possible. And to let sun into our house. Every square meter of ivy is about one green wastebin full. So we have to take it slow, or Peter has to drive to the waste disposal all the time.

The ivy is about 50 cm thick in layers and fixed with wire frame. While doing it we get itchy ivy in our eyes, hair and under our cloths. Yuck!!

Kiwi dropping

The Kiwi's are dropping. They give a lot of mess. A good reason to pick them all in fall for the marmelade. That is: if they will still grow after last week's cut.

Gaultheria

The Gaultheria comes from the same Christmasfair and was also very expensive. I bought it with the berries.

The Gaultheria stands next to the Helioborus, and is also good for the future 'winter garden'.

Helioborus

The Helioborus I bought at the Christmasfair at Kasteel Haarzuilen. It was very expensive, but look how it keeps on making flowers!!

I planted it near the house, so we might see it from the warmth of the house. I hope it will survive for next year and I will make this ridge a real 'wintergarden'. It never gets the sun in the winter, though.

Kiwi trimmed

A beautiful day but everything is frozen. A good chance to trim the kiwi. Can one trim a kiwi in January? I hope I am not doing any harm. After two hours of chopping and cleaning up a small dent is made. It doesn't grow over this side of the balcony anymore, now the other two sides!!

The pond is still frozen, the last four nights it has still been freezing, -3 degrees. But the yellow winter violets keep on going, since last october when I planted these.

Banana trees are down

The banana trees have not fared well with the frost. They are complete mash.

I was looking back at our first pictures of the garden, last May, and noticed I couldnt'see the banana trees either, so perhaps this is what they do every year?

In the fall I watched the BBC, where they showed how you should wrap them in stro. But then the previous owner told me she had never done that. So, well, I thought I would see if the thing is capable of dealing with our winters and otherwise give up on the idea of banana trees.

Lots of people (Frank, my mother) have commented last fall how much character the banana trees bring to the garden. So, from that respect it is a pity the banana tree is down.

In fall I had also tried to dig out some of the smaller new shoots, but it was impossible to dig them out without damage. So they died.

The picture on the left is from April 2008, last April. No banana trees!!??

Winter - Snow drops

I nearly stepped on these snow drops. I am exploring the back of the garden. I still want to use this area much more usefull, and in the winter it is easier to go around.

I want to put a lot of white and yellow stuff here, so it catches the eye. Snow drops are white, but to say that they catch the eye??

They are so pristine, no damage and after the -10° we have had! It is just as if they like the real cold!

Rose in ice

It is -10° at night, but the roses are still standing. After this they will surely quickly rot away, but I am very happy I didn't cut them down in fall. Each time I take the stairs in the house, I see them and point them out to little Ces.

More frost

And one last picture of the frost. See the sunshine reflected in the house in the background.

The bulbs in the frost

The bulbs are doing well in the frost.

Cob webs in frost

It was just this day, all the cob webs were covered with ripe. Funny that the webs were hanging there suddenly, I would have sworn that yesterday they were not there.

The garden in frost

Raking leaves and digging out Horta's

Everyday we rake leaves now. There are a lot of leaves, and it is good fun to do with Ces.

The leaves also fall in the ponds and I try to fish them out. It is a tiresome job and not very effective. Next year I want a netting in November over the pond.

It seems like the leave falling season lasts forever, but really it is only one month.

In the background you can see I have made a start with digging out the horta's. Horrible plants: full of snails and cluttering up all the space.

In the foreground the purple 'Lanterns' that I bought. I wonder if they will return next year???

Blue bushes, Caryopteris

These bushes were really unnoticeable untill they came in bloom: pale blue. There are three of them, on either side of the lawn. I think that I need to trim them back in spring: they look trimmed before.

Cat's tail? Purple Loosestrife

I am not really sure about the name of this, cat's tail? The dictionary gives as translation Purple Loosestrife. But I am not even really sure I have determined the plant well.

But it lights up really nice in the evening light. And I would really like more of this next year. Does it sow itself? I have several varieties in the garden of what appears to be cat's tail, but they are quite different. How does that work?

Coreopsis

Look at the flowers behind the girl flower.

Green terrace.

This is obviously the cutest girl in the world with the sweetest papa. But the picture also shows the terrace at the time. The ivy up above has already been opened. And the wooden plate above the door was gone - removed by Peter.

Lots of green, isn't it?

The big hole that was

And what was behind the bamboo? The big hole! Some of the planters behind the bamboo are already filled with new soil and plants on this picture.

Cutting the bamboo

Another famous 'afterwards' picture. The bamboo is nearly gone. A little bit of the ivy is still against the house.

pelargonium and yucca in flower

In this picture are - apart from two lovely people - the pelargonium ('ooievaarsbek') and the flowering yucca well to see. The pelargonium is really nice in flower, but after that should be trimmed. It is too much!!

Weed with no name, but large

In this picture you see the weed that I didn't recognize as weed. I kept waiting and waiting for it to flower (everything in this garden flowers). Finally Brian the gardener confirmed what I was suspecting: it is a gross weed. He also showed us how you really should pull it out - it is not easy, because it roots really well.

This is how you do it: you lean back and the lean from left to right and back. At last it is all loose and you fall back! It was hudge when he pulled this out in August!!

Bamboo entrance

This picture shows the entrance to our garden from the 'back gate'. It is very green and like a jungle. There are two types of ivy and there is bamboo.

We have since then removed the bamboo, so that the sun can come into the kitchen. The ivy against the house is also gone (looking at the leaves in this picture it was already cut through at the base). Removing the bamboo revealed all sorts of stuff: roses, planters, gaping holes and more.

Looking back at this picture the bamboo actually looks very pretty. But it was too tall (4m) and too close to the house.

Garden in flower

Garden in bloom

The garden in summer bloom.

The roses above the gate. Beautiful, but hard to maintain because they are so high. In the background the bamboo before it was removed. High!!

I think these are what you call "ramblers", climbing roses that keep going.

The pond

In the middle, nearly in the pond the cotton grass. It is an eye catcher - my mother immediately could name it, I had never seen it before. But the name is obvious!

The waterlevel has already gone down a bit, the rocks are exposed.

And the purple loosestrife and farmer's jasmin in the background.

Under the trees

The purple loosestrife again as eyecatcher, nearly blue here. It seemed to turn purple blue in the evening twilight, strange.

In the foreground the pink pelargomium again, a bit too bushy, I think in hindsight. I have taken out the foreground in autumn, because I want to create more lawn.

View from the rear garden

This is from the rear, behind the pond. I don't like the orange flowers, keizerskroon. It is the a plant against moles, but it is not 'soft' enough to my taste.

In the background the banana tree, obviously partly grown up since the winter....

Pink Pelargonium

The pink pelargonium is also rather bushy, very pretty flowers, though. Next year I will chop it short after flowering though. In autumn I manage to salvage some seedlings from between the tiles. Hopefully they survive the winter and I can plant them out. I'd like to spread them around a bit.

In the background against the wall pretty red roses.

Lavender, Poppies

I like the white flowers, although I don't know what it is. It is getting overgrown by the Lavender. Behind the lavender are the Poppies. Bright red poppies. And behind even the yellow flowering Lady's Mantle (Vrouwenmantel). And the stump of the old tree.

Farmer's Jasmin

This is the Farmer's Jasmin, or so it was called in the garden design papers the previous owners made and handed to us. The design is actually interesting for this website too.

I am not sure why this is called Farmer's, I think it means it is not smelly.

Seeing the picture now (Feb 2009) I realise it is choosen well: it stands in the back corner, and white in the back of the garden is a good idea: it draws the eye to the back.

The border in the middle

Another picture for reference. Looking back at this a year later, it pretty much looks still the same.

Stunning effect

I was so stunned by this display of flowers. The cute white ones and the bright blue ones.

Now that I see this picture a year later, I realise I may have weeded out the blue ones. And that would be pity, because then the stunning effect is gone. They have dark leaves.... I'll have to look for them.

I later found out that the large blue ones in the background are 'canary seed' and it is highly explosive stuff!!

Near the pond, pelargonium

Just a picture for reference

Our New Garden

We have bought our house with a great garden. I am a bit afraid of maintaining this garden: will I be able to keep the flowers flowering as beautiful as they are now? I am not really used to this type of garden, although I can maintain a normal 'children's garden'.

We celebrate that we have signed the contract and the garden is ours.